Re: secular curriculum

I am one of the staff members here at HSI and have taught school and been a public librarian for many years. There are free resources on the web that can help you homeschool, but since you are talking about high school aged students, you need to do a little planning first. Since you'd like your daughter to go to college, you should determine what you need to do at home to prepare her for that. We have a book in our store, Homeschooling High School: Planning Homeschool for College, which could be very helpful as you work that out. You might also want to see if you can continue using the textbooks she had in HS - just working through them at home.

When you start to homeschool, it's important that you know and understand what's required to comply with the law in your state. So, checking with your state department of education is always a good idea. Our sister site - www.homeschoollegal.com has good information about homeschooling options in all states, as well as support group information.

Another site - www.homeschoolreviews.com is an excellent source of information about curriculum, both elementary and secondary. You might want to look there as well.

Finally, we at HSI have created Quick Start Curriculum kits (secular and faith based) for grades K-8. They are described on this page of our site. We're working on putting together some kind of HS kit, but it's not ready yet.

Re: secular curriculum

was wondering if you like the Algebra 1 from Teaching Textbooks? Have you had the chance to use this curriculum? I am new to homeschooling, Dec of 2007 I took my son out of private school, anyway I am looking for a math curriculum that actually explains the problems, the how to's and why's and so forth of each and every problem, The reason for this, I suck at math! (sorry if I sound crude but that is the way of it!).

I was looking at Saxon Math- at learningthings.com and they have the saxon math (algebra 1 ) with a CD that claims to help the child through each lesson, although the CD is not part of the Saxon Math curriculum and is in fact made by "learningthings" and is Christian based. I want a secular curriculum but.................. not opposed to it if it would help my son, and lets face it, I need all the help I can get when math is around!

Re: secular curriculum

I don't personally have any experience with Teaching Textbooks, but I can certainly give you information about Saxon Algebra 1. We have it for sale in our store along with a new product, Saxon Teacher. Saxon Teacher uses actual problems (learning things does not) from the Algebra 1 text. We can also sell you Saxon Teacher. If you'd like a demo of Saxon Teacher, click this link http://saxonhomeschool.harcourtachieve.com/en-US/saxonteacher_demo. If you would like to purchase Saxon Algebra 1 and Saxon Teacher from us (our prices are best of web, guaranteed!), then please email me.

Also, our sister site, Home School Reviews most likely has reviews of lots of math curriculum, including Teaching Textbooks and Saxon. Give it a look as well.

Re: secular curriculum

I am a homeschooling mother of 7. I have graduated 2 children who are now in college. I used Saxon all the way through, but just this year switched to TEaching Textbooks. I feel it is a superior product, becuase it explains, step by step, the solutions to the missed problems. I am capable of doing this for my child, as I love my math, but mine was a time constraint. I was spending at least an hour, per day, per student, just on math....and that was 4 hours. I found TT from a friend, looked hers over, and ordered my own of Algebra 1/2 and Grade 5. We have already started it and the kids seem to like it much better also.

Re: secular curriculum

From what I saw online it almost seemed to be too good to be true! My son will start algebra 1 and as I said before- Math is not my thing! I showed it to him and he thinks it will be fine! I will be ordering it soon.

I am now looking for a grammar curriculum, did you use saxon for grammar as well, and if so how was the 8th grade leval?

I know grammar is mostly repeating from 5th through 8th maybe even into high school, wich is great but I also want something of a challenge for him and also I would like something that has a teacher book to go with it.

Re: secular curriculum

I homeschool my 8 year old boy and my 4 year old girl. They are both advanced. I had alot of trouble finding secular curriculums for my children. We are also on a very tight budget. The first thing I did was go to my states public school website. from there I downloaded The Grade standards. This way I could make sure that my curriculum choices match my states standards. Then if i chose to send my children back to public school they would fit right in. I live in North Dakota. We are one of the toughest homeschooling states. Here is the list of books I use for my son:

Math----Math-U-See

Vocabulary and Spelling---Wordly Wise 3000

Science--- I use the older versions of Harcourt.(This way I can buy them on Ebay for cheap) Brown Bag Science and Evan Moore Scienceworks.

Latin---Latin's Not So Tough

Poetry---Evan Moore Read and Understand Poetry

History---American Education Publishing The Complete Book of United States History.(This is a grade 3-5 book, I don't know if they make one for older grades)

Re: secular curriculum

I am new to home schooling and am also looking for a secular based
curiculum- my daughter is in 1st grade and this is her first year at
home. I would like something with a hands on approach to learning, as
I feel thats more age appropriate for her and it satisfy her natural
curosity to learn.